The present disclosure relates generally to the field of analog-to-digital converters. Specifically, the present disclosure relates to a system for and method of improving the performance of an analog-to-digital converter.
An analog-to-digital converter converts continuous signals to discrete digital numbers. The analog-to-digital converter converts an analog input (e.g., voltage, current, etc.) to a digital number. Analog-to-digital converters have performance concerns such as jitter.
Jitter is the time variation of a characteristic of a periodic signal in electronics and telecommunications, often in relation to a reference clock source. Jitter may be observed in characteristics such as the frequency of successive pulses, the signal amplitude, or phase of periodic signals. Jitter is a significant, and undesired factor in the design of almost all communications links (e.g., USB, PCI-e, SATA, OC-48).
In clock recovery applications, jitter is often referred to as timing jitter. Jitter can be quantified in the same terms as all time-varying signals (e.g., RMS, or peak-to-peak displacement). Also like other time-varying signals, jitter can be expressed in terms of spectral density (frequency content).
Jitter period can refer to the interval between two times of maximum effect (or minimum effect) of a signal characteristic that varies regularly with time. Jitter frequency may be the inverse of the jitter period. Jitter may decrease the effective number of bits (“ENOB”) for the system.
What is needed is an analog-to-digital converter with improved jitter characteristics. There is also a need for an analog-to-digital converter system that is less susceptible to jitter or other time variations. Further, there is also a need for an analog-to-digital converter including a monitoring device to mitigate jitter effects. It would be desirable to provide a system and/or method that provides one or more of these advantages features.